Sleep Town
by HideBehindASmile72
Summary: This is a story I wrote last year for my creative writing class. It's fun and at times kind of goofy, but I thought I'd upload it anyway. :P
1. Chapter 1

Sleep Town

It was a beautiful spring morning when my new neighbor moved in. Like any other day, I was outside with my notebook scribbling lyrics across the blank white pages in an attempt at making a song out of nothingness. As an idea actually started to form somewhere in the back of my mind, I was interrupted by the sound of a car screeching to a halt followed by slamming doors and choice words. My new neighbor, Tom, had finally arrived to the house next door. My excitement would soon turn to frustration as I got to know him more personally. I would _very _soon regret any friendly conversations I had had with him encouraging him to move in.

I had met him a few months prior to that day at the coffeehouse where I work; a comfortable place where all the local cool kids would go every weekend to hang out and listen to the most "in" music. Tom had stumbled up to the bar and ordered a Blatte; the most popular drink in the entire city. As I transferred a shot of dark espresso to the freshly-cleaned blender, I heard him strike up a conversation with a fellow college buddy pertaining to rooming. After being denied a room in his friend's apartment, I realized that there was a vacant house to the right of mine. I handed him his drink and told him of the small but cozy house next to mine and told him to stick around until after my shift was over so we could discuss the house. Why oh why couldn't I have just handed him his drink and sent him on his way?

Deciding that any chance of a somewhat pleasant melody would be near impossible, I thought it would be proper to go welcome him to the neighborhood and ask him if he needed any help. As I quickly trudged across my well-kept lawn, dread spread through me as I finally realized how many boxes he actually had in the back of his jeep. This would more than likely take a lot longer than I had hoped.

"Howdy neighbor!" he shrieked in quite possibly the most high-pitched and most irritating tone of voice I had ever heard escape from the lips of a twenty-four year old guy. "How's it going?"

"Oh, you know; same old same old." I replied weakly. "Need any help?"

"Sure, that would be just dandy!" he answered much to my regret. "Well, I need to get all of these boxes into my house, and then I need to unpack and set everything up. Here, take this!" he said as he handed me a box that I swore contained at least thirty extremely large and ridiculously heavy cement blocks.

When we finally reached the house with boxes in our hands, I was relieved to set the box down on the bright red shaggy carpet. As he left the room to go back for more, I decided to be sneaky and check what he had in the boxes. I cut the flimsy tape with my pocketknife and lifted the cardboard flaps to reveal thirty gray, worn cement blocks. "Awesome." I thought to myself.

About forty-five minutes later, we had hauled all of the jam-packed boxes into the house and he had begun to organize the contents throughout his house in a very odd and unusual way. He had a phone connected in his bathroom, a fish tank in his kitchen, and a blender in his bedroom. I felt it would be best not to ask any questions for fears of more conversation and that irritating shriek of his.

As I walked across my perfect lawn to get back to my peaceful afternoon, my cell phone rang. "Hello?" I answered.

"Hey neighbor!" he responded in his _awesome_ tone of voice. "You forgot your hoodie here!"

"Are you sure? I don't think I had a sweatshirt today, its eighty-five degrees out." I retorted with annoyance.

"I think so. It has a guitar on it and says something like… Fen-deer?"

"Fender." I corrected him through gritted teeth. "That's your sweatshirt Tom."

"Oh! You're absolutely correct! Thank you so much for pointing that out!"

"Whatever." I said getting irritated as I hung up the phone. I had already started to realize how much of a pest he was going to end up being.

The following morning, I woke up to the annoying ringing of my phone. Wonder who that could be…

"HOWDY!" Tom yelled even louder and more obnoxious than the previous afternoon. "Want to go shopping with me this afternoon?"

"Uhmm." I replied drowsily. What for?

"I need to go to the mall today to buy a new outfit for my cousin's wedding next weekend. Wanna go with me?" he questioned excitedly.

At this point, I thought it would be rude to deny him, so I decided to go with him. Moving into a new house is a stressful situation and even Tom didn't deserve to be treated that poorly. I also questioned what room he was in and what phone he was using when he called me. I decided I probably would rather not know.

A few hours later, I left my house and went over to Tom's and jumped into the driver's seat of his rusted pick-up truck. His usual annoying voice filled my ears as he told me _exactly_ how his morning went. I think the filter that controls what people do and don't care about in his mind was clogged. Did he think I honestly cared what he ate for breakfast and how many times he went to the bathroom?

We arrived at the mall a few minutes later and walked through the weathered door of the front entrance. Tom had decided to enter _every_ store in order to catch _every _sale. What a fun day this would be…

"Ohh! American Eagle!" he gasped as he walked toward the store. He immediately went to the clearance rack to look for a new shirt or whatever he needed. The amount of time he took to look at each rack told me that this was going to be an extremely long day.

"Should I get this in blue or yellow?" he questioned every thirty seconds.

"You're such a girl!" I replied jokingly.

"Whatever!" he said with a chuckle. I really don't think he was picking up on my irritation.

Four hours later, we were half way through the mall and were completely empty handed. After browsing through at least twenty stores, he had bought absolutely _nothing_! I was beginning to wonder if he really had a cousin's wedding to go to at all…

"Ohh! The food court!" he gasped as though we had just rediscovered Atlantis. "Let's go to MacDonalds!"

"No way! We're going to Taco Bell!" I hollered back. I was not about to break my pact with myself of refusing to eat at any fast food restaurants besides Taco Bell.

"Eww!" he piped. "Taco Bell is disgusting!"

"Whatever!" I replied as I shooed him over in the other direction and walked to my favorite restaurant. I honestly could not deal with an argument over food with Tom. That voice of his just made me want to punch him square in the jaw. Seriously, I kind of get the feeling that if his voice was music, he would go beyond C sharp and B flat and go straight to the high "Q" note in pitch.

After grabbing my tray from the acne-ridden teenager at the counter, I sauntered over to Tom's table where he already polished off half of a Big Mac. "Hey." I mumbled.

"Howdy!" he replied ten times louder than the necessary level.

"How's your food?" I asked not caring but wanting to start a conversation so as to eliminate any chances of an awkward lunch.

"Great!" he replied with a mouthful of disgusting chewed-up French fries.

"Dude, Tom! I hate _sea_ food!" I complained. Silence followed as he pondered the statement and questioned its meaning.

"Oh my god! That's hilarious!" he hollered as loud as a human being probably could ever possibly be. And that's when I heard it. _The_ most obnoxious laugh I had _ever_ heard in my entire life. It sounded a bit like a goat trying to give birth or something of that sort. I then decided that I couldn't take anymore. I had to do something.

"Tom, we have to talk." I whispered.

"What is it?" he answered.

"Well, honestly I think you are the most annoying person I have _ever_ met in my life and I really don't think we should be friends. No offense of course." I said with the nicest tone I could manage.

"Oh." He replied with shock replacing happiness on his face. Before I could further explain the situation, he jumped up from the grimy food court booth and stormed toward the front doors to leave.

"Sorry for wasting your time!" he snapped back noticeably disturbed and disappointed by this sudden dismissal. All I could do was sit there with my tacos and watch him as his brightly-dressed figure left the busy mall bumbling with people.

"At last, Tom has left the building ladies and gentleman!" I whispered with a chuckle to myself; …and then I woke up.


	2. Chapter 2

"Dude, wake up!" whispered Megan Patterson, my best friend, as she hit me multiple times in the back of the head. C'mon! You're missing class! I had actually fallen asleep in my college algebra class. Me, straight-A student Daniel Wallace, fell asleep in class. Someone call the newspaper editor…

"Okay already, stop hitting me!" I growled out of annoyance. "Some of those hits hurt you know!"

"Well I don't want you to fail this class!" she whispered back in defense.

"Okay, what are we doing again?" I mumbled with a yawn.

"Sine, cosine, and tangent stuff." She replied. There was my answer, the reason I had fallen asleep. I absolutely stink at that stuff. I had given up and fallen asleep out of frustration…

Twenty minutes later, the bell rang dismissing students from their classes. As I bolted out the door of the classroom, Megan and her boyfriend Ryan McDonald stopped me in the hallway to discuss plans for later on that night. We had decided to have a horror movie fest at Ryan's house; blood, guts, and the whole nine yards. I was pretty pumped to actually get out of my house for a night to relax after a long week of college and work. Being a college student isn't easy you know!

Later that night, the doorbell rang as Megan and Ryan arrived with their friend, Charlotte Renea Chabis Hodder; Interesting story about his name really. His mother was one-hundred percent set on naming their child either Charlotte or Renea. What a surprise it was when out comes baby Charlotte; a boy. She still decided to go with both while taking the family surname and taking the name Chabis from her Uncle. Needless to say, the jokes pertaining to his name will never end as long as we hang out with Charlotte. Good thing he's such a good sport…

After everyone found their usual spots in Ryan's littered living room, Megan put in a werewolf movie and I headed toward the kitchen to start popping the popcorn. I secretly hated these movies and tried to find any escape from having to watch each brutal slaughter by occupying myself with some other task. Tonight was definitely no exception.

Within and hour into the movie, I fell into a deep sleep on my usual position on the couch. Megan would tell me later on that a passing hurricane probably would have had no impact on my slumbering state.

Immediately upon falling asleep, I arrived in the alternate universe that came to be known as Sleep Town; A place that bears a striking resemblance to my own town, but unexplainably better. This place had the same trees, sidewalks, and buildings as my own town, but it also contained some of the most odd but astonishing people and objects that a person could imagine in their wildest imaginations.


	3. Chapter 3

As I walked outside to retrieve the morning paper and mail, I came across Irene, the town's one and only mail lady. Her poofy old lady fro was bobbing especially high today resulting in silent chuckles.

"Good morning!" she greeted as she handed me my mail. That's another odd thing about Sleep Town. The time is completely reversed as compared to that of the real world. While my actual body is resting at Ryan's house at ten at night, here I am outside during another beautiful spring morning in Sleep Town.

"Hey!" I replied enthusiastically. "How've you been?"

"Excellent!" she responded cheerily. "It's always a great day to be alive here in Sleep Town!"

"You speak the truth!" I said chuckling again at her hairdo.

Suddenly, I heard the most terrifying noise ever to grace human and non-human ears; the squawk of a petrifying, gruesome, man-eating bird. The Pelican.

My eyes swiftly darted in all directions to see where the horrifying noise was coming from. My fears were realized as I discovered to my horror that a single, white-hued pelican had decided to make a makeshift home out of the dingy roof of my house. I stood there frozen solid as if an iceberg had suddenly formed around me.

Now most people would say, "What kind of man is afraid of pelicans of all birds?" In which case I would most likely get very upset with you and curse you out for insulting my masculinity rather than just telling you the story.

The origin of my odd fear stretches back to when I was just four years old living near an abandoned harbor with my parents. One day, I had gotten angry with my parents and decided to run away during my sister's sixteenth birthday party to the lighthouse at the end of the break wall. After packing my suitcase with one day's worth of clothes and my most prized possession (my raggedy teddy bear with an ear missing; Paul), I headed out for the lighthouse.

Don't ask me why I decided to go to the dark, rundown lighthouse. Even after hearing of chilling ghost stories and rumors of the building being haunted, I set the lighthouse as my destination. Like any other four year-old, I as confident that I was brave and fearless and could do anything. More like any other four year-old, I soon discovered I wasn't as daring as I had anticipated. Upon entering the lighthouse, I immediately felt shivers up my spine. There was something eerie about an old abandoned lighthouse that just didn't set well with me. It was also felt to be only about thirty degrees inside…

Within a few minutes, I heard the squawk of the bird I would later come to be absolutely terrified of; a pelican. The pelican had made the lighthouse his home and unlike any respectable person, did not enjoy the generous company of others. Before a scream could escape my icy cold lips, the pelican had swooped down upon me and stole the only thing I had thought I loved at the time; Paul. Within that lightning-quick motion, the Pelican had plunged down to swallow Paul in one mammoth bite before I could think of how to stop it.

With the realization that my only friend had just been eaten by the colossal bird and was never going to be in my arms again, I did what any other four year-old would do in a situation like this; I cried. To say I only cried would be the understatement of the century. I'm sure my screams could be heard in Australia to be completely honest. As far as the volume of the tears themselves, I was also shocked that I didn't flood the lighthouse and drown both the pelican and myself.

About an hour later, my parents, mad with worry, finally discovered me in the corner bawling my eyes out. After frantically asking me what the problem was, they received an answer they will probably never forget as long as they live. "That big fat meenie birdie eated my Paul!" was my sobbing reply. Although I might add that some other certain words were also thrown in there making my parents ponder whether or not it would be wrong to laugh… So in other words, not only did I develop a silly fear of pelicans that day, but I also completely ruined my sister's party. What a great day that was…


	4. Chapter 4

Alright, now back to my modern-day issue. It took a while for the shock to finally sink in, but I finally realized that something must be done fast. I would not be able to live with the fact that there is a pelican nesting on my roof. Before I could get deeper into thought, I received yet another shock. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Megan and Ryan walking through my green grass to where I was standing.

"Megan, Ryan, is that really you guys?" I questioned with confusion in my tone.

"Yeah!" they both replied with excitement. "We have been coming to Sleep Town for years and haven't once crossed paths with you; how does that happen?"

"Oh wow." I said with a chuckle. "So, are you guys still at Ryan's house back in the real world?"

"Yeah!" Megan answered. Charlotte had to leave, but you're still passed out on the sofa. By the way, if you happen to wake up with marker on your face by chance, it definitely _wasn't_ us, okay?

I shifted my eyes in frustration but ended up laughing with them. After the laughter passed, I invited them in to watch TV or just hang out. I lead them inside to my living room and felt a feeling of déjà vu as we sat in our usual spots while our unconscious bodies did the same in reality. The entire situation was really somewhat freaky if I was to sit and actually think about it.

After finding a good show to watch after tirelessly channel surfing for twenty minutes, a commercial came on that gave me a brilliant idea to get rid of the stupid bird that now rested above my head. It was a MacDonalds ad to advertise some new burger or something of that sort. I wasn't really paying attention, but the gears in my head turned and I imagined a light bulb forming over my head as if we were in a cartoon.

My plan was shockingly simplistic. All I would have to do is just jog down to the nearest MacDonalds about two blocks away and buy some hot and fresh Macfries. After all, most birds love MacDonalds fries. I have many negative experiences to prove that unfortunately.

Once I had the fries, I would simply just lure the pelican away from my house. The only problem was where I would lead it to once it was away from my roof. At this stage in my plan, I wasn't prepared to think that far ahead.

"Hey guys, I have to run to MacDonalds quick, want anything?" I asked before running out the front door.

"Yeah, a MacChicken for me and some MacBurgers for Ryan please." Megan replied back lazily still watching the sitcom that was on the TV. How cute, she knows her boyfriend's MacDonalds order…

With Megan and Ryan's orders in the back of mind, I jolted out the doors and down the cracked sidewalk. Because everything was in the same place in Sleep Town as in the real world, I knew exactly where I would find the golden sign with "MacDonalds" plastered across the front of it. A short jog later, I burst in the doors and paced over to the counter only to find that there was a neat line formed stretching out from the counter. Leave it to my brain to formulate my brilliant ideas at noon…

I impatiently waited in line for twenty minutes tapping my foot in annoyance for at least half of the time much to the dismay to the bitter old lady in front of me. As she turned around to whine at me, I suddenly realized I recognized her familiar wrinkled face. The bitter old lady in front of me was in fact the grandma whose house reeked of old and who was the strictest person you could ever meet. In addition to constantly being on my case about everything form eating habits to staying away from drugs, she also was the dullest and most boring person you could meet. A five minute conversation with her is the equivalent of a lullaby for a baby. Her tone is monotonous enough to make you wish you were in summer school. Yeah, it is_ that _bad.

"Is that you Danny Boy?" she piped in her squeaky old lady voice.

"Yeah, hey grandma." I replied.

"Why are you here in this fatty food place Danny?" she questioned with concern. "Don't you know this food causes obesity and heart attacks and clogged arteries? In my day we didn't have these restaurants! We had to either eat what was at the table or starve. We got served healthy foods, not this junk food you call _convenience_...

By the time I had heard her second sentence, I completely tuned out her rant about the state of youth today and the increases in obesity. Tuning out grandma was a trait that I had learned from her, whether she realizes it or not. I also found it best to not point out the irony of her whining about _me _being at MacDonalds…

I was relieved of her complaining when the employee in the dark red uniform handed her tray to her slowly so she wouldn't drop it. It then hit me as she walked away that she was sleeping right now. She _would_ have an exciting dream about going to MacDonalds…

The boredom I had acquired from my confrontation with grandma soon escaped from me as I finally ordered the fries. I got a somewhat weird glance from the cashier as I handed her a fifty dollar bill to pay for fries that cost only a dollar. Oh well, it's only Sleep Town…

"Thank you, Po Tate." I said as I squinted my eyes to glance at the cashier's silver nametag. Leave it to me to have such cheesy names for people in my dreams… I took the bag from Po's hand and immediately went through the push doors to resume my plot to rid my roof of the troublesome pelican. When I returned to my house a few minutes later, I was surprised to see that Ryan and Megan, who I left in a state of being zombie-like, were outside in the middle of an intense game of basketball. They were more than likely playing horse…


	5. Chapter 5

In my excitement, I spared them the details and shot right into my plan. I still had my semi-evil idea in my head that I had formed earlier; where to lead the bird to. Where else could I send it besides my neighbor's house? I chuckled to myself as I realized that if we were still friends, Tom would have probably thanked me for the thoughtful and creative "Housewarming Gift." He may have even gone far enough to say it was what he's always wanted. _Sometimes_ I miss that guy.

As I walked closer to my house, I reached my sweaty hand into the white paper MacDonalds bag to grab the fries. I took the red carton out and started to toss them up onto the roof near the pelican to test if he would eat them or not. Even with my horribly bad luck, the bird gobbled the fries up in a single swallow and continued to stumble across the roof. Realizing that my plan might actually work, I started to toss the fries in a pattern across the surface to lead him toward Tom's house. When the trail of salty fries reached the end of the roof, I started to chuck the fries toward Tom's house. Once again in my disbelief, my plan continued to succeed.

The pelican finally took flight in a quick ungraceful swipe and dropped down to Tom's much lower roof. Seeing that my plan was carried out to perfection, I threw the remaining fries up to Tom's aging roof. My luck continued to surprise me as the pelican decided it wasn't worth the effort of crossing back over to my house. My plan actually worked! I thought getting over my worst fear would probably be pushing my luck to the very limit possible… After the feeling of accomplishment blew over as soon as it had arrived, everything began to make perfect sense to me.

It finally occurred to me that there was a direct correlation between how I live my life and the experiences I have in Sleep Town. First of all, when I arrived in Sleep Town after falling asleep in algebra class, an issue of an extremely obnoxious neighbor plagued me much to my annoyance. The connection in question deals with emotions. I was irritated in class because I didn't understand the material, and the pelican nested on my house as a result of falling asleep scared out of my mind from the horror movie. It was so simple and yet so complicated at the same time.

Within the months following these two dreams, I remained persistent about returning to Sleep Town with Ryan and Megan. Some days the dreams weren't all that great because I had had a miserable day. One dream following a day of mass chaos and confusion involved me being involved in a court case for a man named Dino who I had never met in my life. Other days, the dreams were incredibly rewarding, such as the day that I got a raise at work resulting in a dream about Megan, Ryan, and I forming a band called "Double Negative" and touring the globe.

The entire experience did actually teach me something although I didn't realize it right away. I learned that tomorrow is a new day. If I have a bad day, there is always tomorrow. The best thing that I can do is just try to live for today and make it a good day, as my hard work will pay off later. Even on the worst days of my life, I know I can expect the sun to rise in the morning providing me with a brand new day and brand new opportunities.


End file.
